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Aug. 31st, 2019 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsA month or so ago tenillypo and I watched the first two parts (twelve episodes) of Arthdal Chronicles, a Netflix kdrama -- the final six episodes are coming out later this year, I think, an unusual model for kdrama production in my experience but I guess a thing that's becoming more common with Netflix models -- and I don't know that it was good, per se, but I'm fascinated by it for a number of reasons.
It's helpful thatshati also watched the show and has recently read a lot of books about anthropology, so she was able to explain to me that, for example, when the leader of Our Heroine's utopian neolithic settlement explained its ban on Growing Things, Domesticating Things, and Climbing The Big Cliff Up To Visit The Evil Empire That Grows And Domesticates Things, the show was in fact wading enthusiastically into a long-running debate on Agriculture: Was It A Mistake? Arthdal Chronicles is ready to declare that yes, it was! I don't know whether they're presenting the world's most nuanced viewpoint here but I've never watched a television show that had such vehement anthropological opinions before and I'm very honestly charmed.
I'm also charmed by the fact that the costumers were clearly so enthused by the opportunity to design for a time period well outside of the Joseon era that they threw all sense of continuity to the winds and followed their hearts in every sense of the word.
Our heroine, a Neolithic hunter-gatherer lass! They're not allowed agriculture but they do have tools, presumably you can technically weave cloth just with stuff you ... gathered .......
You can tell how idyllic their society is because of all the face paint and flower crowns.
The deuteragonist, the scheming general of the Evil Empire up the road, tastefully rocking the trendy Ikea rugs popularized by the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones. Please note all the beautiful tiny studs on his clothing and remember it's an important plot point that bronze is a highly advanced technology controlled by a single subgroup and presumably nobody yet knows how to make iron.
This lad's in the guard, so he gets a red Ikea rug! Again: metallurgy is a highly advanced technology, here, in the world of Arthdal.
The Hae clan brought their fancy bronze technology from the land of "Remus" so this bodyguard/maid's Roman aesthetic makes perfect sense.
Taealha's slinky pseudo-Roman outfits are really ... more of a gesture .....
ROMANS CONTROL BRONZE. That's all you need to know.
These are Neanderthal! Sorry, Neanthals. You can tell because they have purple lips, purple blood, and super-strength, as everyone knows about -- ("what?", you ask?) -- AS EVERYONE KNOWS, IS A FACT, ABOUT NEANDERTHALS --
Just a standard-issue medieval lass with the most complicated braids I've ever seen in my life.
More medieval peasantry, featuring poor Song Joon-ki's most unfortunate wig of the series.
More ... medieval ........? no this is a very background character so I think they probably just raided the costume bin until they decided they had an Aesthetic.
This lad always wears a muzzle over his face and WE DON'T KNOW WHY. It's NEVER EXPLAINED. At one point he takes it off and has a conversation and his face is perfectly normal!
It's hard to get a good shot of this outfit because it's in the dark and he doesn't wear it for long, so you'll have to take my word for it that not only is it sparkly on the inside but he's also got fancy gloves and lace cuffs. He looks like an 18th-century cavalier. It's amazing. We did not realize until someone referenced a mysterious beautiful woman in the next episode that he was supposed to be cross-dressed for disguise purposes for this entire scene.
And this is how he dresses normally. You see the confusion.
I include this for a.) Song Joon-ki's Neolithic Leathers b.) I had to get the horse in here somehow, he's the best character in the show.
The plot, you ask? The plot! Song Joon-ki stars as a secret half-Neanderthal lad who grows up in an idyllic Neolithic village after the evil empire genocides the Neanderthals so as to take their land for more agriculture. Alas! soon the evil empire comes down the cliff to conquer more slaves to tend to their agriculture, and Song Joon-ki's whole village, including his best friend -- who is destined to be the next Great Mother of the clan and as such is supposed to have special magic powers -- are captured and brought to the big evil city where everyone soon gets wrapped up in labyrinthine Game of Throne-esque interclan politics involving control of religious iconography and bronze technology.
It was quite interesting for me as an American watching this; like, if I saw an American-made fantasy TV show that grounded itself so much in the imagery of a technologically superior but morally suspect society marching on an idyllic hunter-gatherer society to commit conquest and genocide, I'd feel pretty sure I was looking at a very specific metaphor. But this isn't an American show, so I kept having to pull myself back from jumping to what would, in other contexts, be for me obvious conclusions. And I'm sure that there are quite obvious conclusions to be drawn, I just don't have the correct cultural referents for them.
tenillypo and I watched the first two parts (twelve episodes) of Arthdal Chronicles, a Netflix kdrama -- the final six episodes are coming out later this year, I think, an unusual model for kdrama production in my experience but I guess a thing that's becoming more common with Netflix models -- and I don't know that it was good, per se, but I'm fascinated by it for a number of reasons.It's helpful that
shati also watched the show and has recently read a lot of books about anthropology, so she was able to explain to me that, for example, when the leader of Our Heroine's utopian neolithic settlement explained its ban on Growing Things, Domesticating Things, and Climbing The Big Cliff Up To Visit The Evil Empire That Grows And Domesticates Things, the show was in fact wading enthusiastically into a long-running debate on Agriculture: Was It A Mistake? Arthdal Chronicles is ready to declare that yes, it was! I don't know whether they're presenting the world's most nuanced viewpoint here but I've never watched a television show that had such vehement anthropological opinions before and I'm very honestly charmed. I'm also charmed by the fact that the costumers were clearly so enthused by the opportunity to design for a time period well outside of the Joseon era that they threw all sense of continuity to the winds and followed their hearts in every sense of the word.
Our heroine, a Neolithic hunter-gatherer lass! They're not allowed agriculture but they do have tools, presumably you can technically weave cloth just with stuff you ... gathered .......
You can tell how idyllic their society is because of all the face paint and flower crowns.
The deuteragonist, the scheming general of the Evil Empire up the road, tastefully rocking the trendy Ikea rugs popularized by the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones. Please note all the beautiful tiny studs on his clothing and remember it's an important plot point that bronze is a highly advanced technology controlled by a single subgroup and presumably nobody yet knows how to make iron.
This lad's in the guard, so he gets a red Ikea rug! Again: metallurgy is a highly advanced technology, here, in the world of Arthdal.
The Hae clan brought their fancy bronze technology from the land of "Remus" so this bodyguard/maid's Roman aesthetic makes perfect sense.
Taealha's slinky pseudo-Roman outfits are really ... more of a gesture .....
ROMANS CONTROL BRONZE. That's all you need to know.
These are Neanderthal! Sorry, Neanthals. You can tell because they have purple lips, purple blood, and super-strength, as everyone knows about -- ("what?", you ask?) -- AS EVERYONE KNOWS, IS A FACT, ABOUT NEANDERTHALS --
Just a standard-issue medieval lass with the most complicated braids I've ever seen in my life.
More medieval peasantry, featuring poor Song Joon-ki's most unfortunate wig of the series.
More ... medieval ........? no this is a very background character so I think they probably just raided the costume bin until they decided they had an Aesthetic.
This lad always wears a muzzle over his face and WE DON'T KNOW WHY. It's NEVER EXPLAINED. At one point he takes it off and has a conversation and his face is perfectly normal!
It's hard to get a good shot of this outfit because it's in the dark and he doesn't wear it for long, so you'll have to take my word for it that not only is it sparkly on the inside but he's also got fancy gloves and lace cuffs. He looks like an 18th-century cavalier. It's amazing. We did not realize until someone referenced a mysterious beautiful woman in the next episode that he was supposed to be cross-dressed for disguise purposes for this entire scene.
And this is how he dresses normally. You see the confusion.
I include this for a.) Song Joon-ki's Neolithic Leathers b.) I had to get the horse in here somehow, he's the best character in the show.
The plot, you ask? The plot! Song Joon-ki stars as a secret half-Neanderthal lad who grows up in an idyllic Neolithic village after the evil empire genocides the Neanderthals so as to take their land for more agriculture. Alas! soon the evil empire comes down the cliff to conquer more slaves to tend to their agriculture, and Song Joon-ki's whole village, including his best friend -- who is destined to be the next Great Mother of the clan and as such is supposed to have special magic powers -- are captured and brought to the big evil city where everyone soon gets wrapped up in labyrinthine Game of Throne-esque interclan politics involving control of religious iconography and bronze technology.
It was quite interesting for me as an American watching this; like, if I saw an American-made fantasy TV show that grounded itself so much in the imagery of a technologically superior but morally suspect society marching on an idyllic hunter-gatherer society to commit conquest and genocide, I'd feel pretty sure I was looking at a very specific metaphor. But this isn't an American show, so I kept having to pull myself back from jumping to what would, in other contexts, be for me obvious conclusions. And I'm sure that there are quite obvious conclusions to be drawn, I just don't have the correct cultural referents for them.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-31 07:26 pm (UTC)So there's that, I guess.
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Date: 2019-08-31 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-01 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-01 02:44 am (UTC)